Reina-Valera 1909 Spanish Bible with Strong’s Numbers
There are a number of Reina-Valera Bible editions currently available. The most widely used in Spanish-speaking countries is probably the 1960 version (although there have been other revisions published since then). However, these Bibles are all copyrighted and it is not always easy and/or financially feasible to include them in software packages. This has resulted in the widespread use of RV1909, or even earlier editions, since these are now public domain texts. But the use of less than perfect e-texts, as well as the inherent difficulty of sometimes outdated expressions or words, can be problematic at times. I remember very well when I first began to use Bible software (feels like ages ago!) and kept finding typos which I then reported to almost anybody who offered electronic Spanish Bibles back in the day. Needless to say that things have improved a lot nowadays, but still there was something that I felt was sorely lacking.
In a loose kind of way –particularly so in the most recent incarnations–, Reina-Valera Bibles have followed the Masoretic Text and the Textus Receptus, and have adopted a formal approach to Bible translation, while preserving, at the same time, a really good literary style. In this sense, the 1909 edition has struck a nice balance. It is a PD text that follows very closely the traditional Hebrew and Greek texts and still reads quite nicely. So, seeing that none of the other versions (including those based on the Critical Text) were readily available, this one seemed like the best candidate to use as part of a project I had had in mind for years: an electronic Spanish Bible tagged with Strong’s numbers that could be used by everybody and further developed with other types of tagging in the future.
I am happy to report that the first stage of this project is now ready for prime time. Reina-Valera 1909 with Strong’s Numbers is currently available for the following Bible programs: Accordance, Bible Analyzer, e-Sword, SwordSearcher and theWord. It should be coming soon to BibleReader and PocketBible. In the meantime, if other companies not mentioned here want to offer this title to their customers, they are welcome to contact me. My goal is to make it as widely available as possible. Please note that I don’t send the files to individuals, and that the terms and conditions may be different from one software vendor to another. Once they get the files and produce their module, everything else is entirely up to them. The only general condition is that the module should be locked (i.e., users cannot modify it) so that changes can only be implemented by the editor (in this case, me!). However, users are welcome and encouraged to email me typos and suggestions.
This is still a work in progress but already fully useable. The power and flexibility of having a Spanish Bible tagged with Strong’s depends largely on the application being used, but in some cases it can be pretty amazing, as I will try to show in future posts.
EDIT (July 13, 2012): The Bible is now available as a SWORD module add-in and can be used by a wide range of Bible programs that use this particular format.
